13th Birthday
by Jacklyn Rios, SN
For my creative reflection I did it based on a patient I had during clinicals. This patient was an autistic boy who unfortunately one day walked out his house and was involved in a hit and run accident. He had been in the hospital for several days and his family had decided to let him pass away naturally and the only goal was for him to make it to his thirteenth birthday. The day of my clinical his family was preparing him and decorating his room to have a birthday party as the next day it was going to be his thirteenth birthday.
This day during clinical I was fortunate to get the chance to provide care for this patient. Before entering the room the nurse had given me a brief report of his case and prepared me on what to expect before entering the room. As I entered the room my first impression was like a normal boys hospital room. There were pictures of him hanging on the wall, as well drawings, and decorative papers spelling out his name. He was in his hospital bed and looked like a normal boy sleeping.
The drawing I created depicts this patient. I drew him from his posterior perspective to make him appear like a normal boy as that was my first impression I had of him. In addition, I drew him with a beanie as they always placed a beanie on his head to cover his head injury as the accident caused the need to remove half of one side of his brain and the beanie was to help him look like a normal boy.
I then drew three balloons floating into the sky towards the clouds and the sun. The first balloon I drew was the one in the middle with the design of puzzles. I drew the puzzle's design in the balloon to symbolize autism as he was autistic and portrayed part of who he was. The other two balloons I drew next to the centered one was a batman and spiderman symbolized balloon. These two balloons were drawn to represent his interests, and as during this clinical I assisted in changing his bed and repositioning him and as we changed him he had his own personal gowns, which I saw was a batman and spiderman gown.
Next, I drew the two clouds next to the sun with the rays shining down to create a symbolization of an angel. The two clouds are to represent the wings of an angel and the rays to be the gown or body of the angel. The sun is to represent the head of the angel and to bring brightness to the drawing as that day his family and friends were going to celebrate his thirteenth birthday. Lastly, I did the background to be outside with a blue clear sky, grass and two birds to represent freedom as he had been in the hospital many weeks now. I hope after his passing he gets his freedom from being in an enclosed hospital room.
The overall depiction of the drawing is to hope that this patient made it to his thirteenth birthday.
We hear his mother yelling his name and the call bell light goes off. When we walked in I saw the boy in front of his mother looking angry and like he might get physical with her. We attempted to calm down the situation and get him to sit down. I could barely imagine the fear his mother was going through. The teenager that was a foot bigger than her was no longer her baby and could hurt her. His mother explained that this sometimes happens after his seizures. Then she followed by saying that she had to take a breather and tears started rolling down her cheek. The preceptor nurse hugged her and reassured her that we were there for anything they needed and that I would be assigned to look over him and make sure he is okay for the day. I took this very seriously and got right to work. I went over to my new friend and started talking to him. Right away he opened up to me and started smiling and laughing. My preceptor nurse told me that he was really fond of me. We talked for hours as I made sure he did not have a seizure, took his vitals, and kept his monitors on. While we kept each other company I used the computer in the room to learn a bit more about my patient. This entire experience moved me to create “The Brain of an Epileptic Pediatric Patient”.
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This drawing represents the brain of a boy who has been dealing with epilepsy since a young age. The seizures are represented by the fireworks in the middle of his brain that are uncontrollable. Since a young age, his family has needed to focus on these seizures pushing aside the things that make him young. For my patient, this included a love for music, video games, his cell phone, football, cars, and movies. In the background of the drawing, we have blackness representing the state after a seizure that might make the patient angry and physical. In a sense, this consumes his brain, but he is still a young teenager that loves to be a kid and express his passions.